Police Case Against 5 For Harassing Dalit Man In Rajasthan

Five persons of the Gurjar community have been charged for harassing a Dalit man to apologise before the panchayat for his alleged inappropriate remark against a woman of the Gurjar community in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh district, police said Tuesday. 

A complaint was lodged by the Dalit man Dalu Salvi (70), a resident of Dugar village that five people including Ratanlal Gurjar, Hazari Gurjar, Ugma Gurjar and two others were harassing him by pressuring him to apologise for his act, Parsoli SHO Devendra Kumar said. 

The SHO said that Salvi, a 'Katha Vachak' or narrator of religious texts, had allegedly passed remarks against a woman belonging to the Gurjar community six months ago. However, the matter came to light after a purported video of the incident circulated on social media.

Although Salvi has already apologised, a few people of the Gurjar community people are pressurising him to apologise before the panchayat, the SHO added.

He said that a Dalit organisation in the village has submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Superintendent of Police.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered on Monday against the five accused under Sections 504 (intimidation), 506 (pressurising), and 143 (riot) of the Indian Penal Code and under sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the police said.

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